This is very long, but I thought it was worth posting in full. My analysis is here on Liberal Democrat Voice.
You can never really get the full flavour of a 14 page speech into a blog post. It's not always worth reading the whole thing, but this is well written and definitely worth it.
It is a
real pleasure to be with you all here in Stirling University today to talk
about Scotland’s future.
On 18th September this year we will
take the most fundamental collective decision that a nation can ever be asked
to take.
This is a
once in a generation decision:
We have
just over eight months to decide whether we stay in the United Kingdom family
or go it alone.
Eight
months to choose between remaining part of this four-nation partnership that we
have built together or to break away and to start from scratch.
That is
our choice.
That time
will fly by – but I’m determined to the make the most of every minute.
Why?
Quite
simply because I believe in Scotland within the United Kingdom.
I believe
in the contribution we’ve made over the last 300 years along with our friends
and families across England, Wales and Northern Ireland: our common effort to
create and share something bigger and that serves us all well.
I believe
in the benefits we get from being part of this larger shared community.
I believe
this because I can see the evidence around me – at home in Orkney, here in
Stirling, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, right throughout the
United Kingdom.
We all put
something in and we are all getting something out: the UK is greater than the
sum of its parts.
Right now
Scotland sees the benefit of this long shared history.
Right now,
we get the benefits from natural resources like North Sea oil – but we are able
to manage the volatility in production and price as part of a much larger and
diverse economy made up of 60 million individuals rather than just five.
Our
economy comprises four and a half million companies rather than 320,000 – a
market with no boundaries, no borders, no customs - but with a stable UK
currency that is respected and envied across the world; a single financial
system, and a single body of rules and regulations.
Because we
share in these benefits, Scotland is best placed to succeed. We are the
wealthiest area of the UK outside London and South East, and we have achieved
that as part of the UK.
And right
now, all of this supports jobs here in Scotland.
Jobs in
industries as diverse as oil and gas, defence, food and drink and the new and
emerging creative industries of the future.
Let us not
forget we get more back than we put in.
Public
spending in Scotland is currently 10% higher than the UK average.
Yes, there
are national differences across the UK – we are not a monolithic culture, thank
goodness.
That’s
true of our economy and our society.
One of
things of which I am most proud in the UK is that we’re able to absorb, to
protect and to cherish differences: differences of culture, religion, accent,
origin and much, much more.
But let
no-one underestimate what we share together and how that helps us succeed
together.
Of course,
our commitment to the UK family is not just about the facts and figures.
It’s also
about the values and ambitions we share.
The hands
that built the United Kingdom have created things of enormous value.
They
strike a chord of pride within us and remind us all of what we can achieve
together.
Together,
we built a National Health Service.
When
William Beveridge identified the five “Giant Evils” facing post-war Britain -
squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease – these evils blighted every
nation of our United Kingdom.
And when
the UK Parliament established the NHS, it did so to fight those evils within
the entirety of our borders.
We faced
the same problems, we felt the same outrage and we together we found the same
solution.
Today,
people across the UK family take enormous pride in a National Health Service,
providing comprehensive health services, free at the point of use for all UK
citizens wherever they fall ill within our United Kingdom.
Together,
we built the BBC - three letters that stand for excellence in broadcasting at
home and around the world.
They
invoke quality, depth and impartiality.
It is the
product of our shared wish for a national broadcaster that can educate,
entertain and inform.
It is
funded by a flat licence fee that guarantees access to programming that is both
UK wide and nation and region specific. It serves local communities
with a local presence in places like my own communities in Orkney and
Shetland. It provides national reporting and entertainment across the
nation. Around the world people look to the world service as a
source of truth and impartiality.
It is
unrivalled, unparalleled, and irreplaceable.
Together,
we have built a formidable sporting culture too.
In so many
sports, the nations of our UK family have different traditions, different
strengths and different teams.
But while
we maintain a strong pride in our teams for football, rugby and so much more –
We also
maintain an enormous pride in the sporting clout that we represent together.
Whether
that’s the British Lions, or next month’s Winter Olympics, or of course, our
astonishing achievements in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
At those
Games, the UK won a 29 gold medals.
And over
the Games, as the tally went higher, so did our collective sense of national
pride.
Chris Hoy,
Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray, Mo Farah, Katherine Granger.
Those
outstanding athletes weren’t cheered on by parts of the UK, but by all of us.
They were
our representatives.
They
worked together, they competed together – many had trained together at
facilities across the UK.
Their
success fed our pride.
The NHS,
the BBC, our sporting events, teams and heroes.
These are
just a few of the things that bind together our family in pride and endeavour.
Shared
values, shared effort, shared achievements.
Why should
we now break these things up?
As
separate states must.
When we
have achieved so much through our common values and labour, wouldn’t we go on
to achieve so much more?
The
challenges we face today may be different but they are every bit as demanding
as those we faced in the past.
Together,
we can afford the subsidies that will bring about a renewables revolution in
this country.
Cutting
carbon emissions, tackling climate change, strengthening the green economy.
Together,
we can make a bigger impact on global poverty.
Pooling
our resources, we have grown our aid budget and become the second largest donor
nation in the world today.
Together,
we can rebalance our economy and become more prosperous.
Growing
faster than any other G7 country, becoming the largest EU economy within
perhaps just twenty years, providing the financial security that safeguards our
banks and secures our currency.
The
motivation to prevent climate change, to protect the most vulnerable and to
build a strong prosperous and sustainable economy.
These
values are common across the United Kingdom.
And by
staying together, we can build on those values to create a strong and secure
future.
Why should
we now break these things up?
2013 – the
year of evidence
I don’t
believe in the UK family because of dogma, ideology or nostalgia but because of
what the UK means to us in the here and now and what it can deliver for us all
in the future.
For too
long we have allowed to go unspoken the contribution that Scotland makes to the
UK - and we have been equally silent on the benefits that we get from being
part of it.
2013 was
the year when the UK Government started putting the record straight.
We
embarked on an analysis programme examining the facts, reviewing the evidence
and making the case for Scotland as part of the United Kingdom in a series of
detailed papers.
Soon we
will publish our first paper of the new year.
It will
examine the benefits for Scotland of being part of the UK in the EU and on the
international stage.
The UK is
at the heart of all of the world’s most influential organisations.
As part of
the UK we are one of the founding members of the United Nations and have a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council - helping to take decisions on major
foreign policy and defence issues.
As part of
the UK we can use our influence to help others – whether to give our home-grown
businesses access to new export markets through our highly-developed
embassy network; or providing support and assistance to other countries in
times of crisis.
Our paper
will set out the facts about Scotland’s contribution and the benefits we get
from being part of this world-leading partnership.
We’re
talking about a complex, detailed piece of analytical work.
That’s
because what we have in the UK is a product of years, of decades worth of
cooperation and negotiation – both within the UK and with our neighbours.
Academics,
businesses and legal experts here in Scotland have read – and contributed to -
the papers we’ve published to date.
They
support the facts and the evidence we have presented.
You’ll
find no grandiose flights of fancy here - only the very facts of our United
Kingdom:
·
our banks
are safer;
·
we have
greater financial protection for savers and pensioners;
·
greater
levels of competition delivering cheaper mortgages and insurance for families
and businesses;
·
we invest
in research, infrastructure and industry to remain at the forefront of new
technological developments;
·
we have a
single labour market which allows people to move freely within the UK for jobs;
and
·
we use our
international influence to make a positive difference.
The list
can – and does – go on.
Together
these facts to make a positive case for Scotland in the United
Kingdom.
And
throughout the remainder of this year we’re going to keep making that case.
But you
don’t just have to accept the facts we’ve published, just take a look at some
of the other contributions we’ve had so recently in this debate:
·
We have
heard the supermarkets talk about the benefit of being part of a single
large economy where food and drink costs us, the consumers, the same regardless
of the costs of production and distribution.
·
We’ve
heard the CBI – the organisation that speaks on behalf of business - say that the
nations of the UK are stronger together and that Scotland’s business and
economic interests will be best served by remaining part of the UK family
·
We’ve seen
the body that represents accountants in Scotland continue to ask questions
about the Scottish Government’s proposals for pensions – questions that remain
after the White Paper’s publication
·
And we’ve
heard legal experts describe independence as ‘a road to nowhere’.
It’s no surprise that the Scottish Government argue
against all the evidence and the facts that we’ve presented - but their
eagerness to shout down the experts from the worlds of business, academia and
the law is worrying and regrettable.
Other side
of the argument – not being honest
I don’t
argue with the right of those on the other side of this debate to feel the way
they do about the future of our country.
But I do
feel very strongly that those who want to break up our United Kingdom have a
duty to listen to the experts and to make an evidence-based case of their own.
It is not
good enough to adopt the politics of ‘he who shouts loudest’. It’s not
good enough to say, when challenged, “just because I say so”.
For most
of 2013 the Scottish Government told us in response to almost every question
put to them: ‘wait for the White paper’; ‘the answer will be in the White
paper’.
But what
we got in November was heavy on rhetoric and light on answers. It
was a wish list without a price list.
On the one
hand we got a set of promises that the Scottish Government can’t deliver.
No matter
what they say, it is not for the Scottish Government to dictate what deal a
separate Scotland could negotiate with the rest of the UK.
As Scots
we all have to ask ourselves if we choose to leave the UK, why would those
we’ve walked out on want to continue to share the things we have at the moment
precisely because we part of the UK?
If we stop
contributing to the UK, why would we keep getting the benefits from being part
of it?
And that’s
before we even start to think about the negotiations that would be required
with all 28 EU member states, bilateral relations with countries around the
world and international organisations.
Yet on the
other hand we saw the Scottish Government promising things post-independence
that they could be delivering today.
The
Scottish Government chose to put the spotlight on childcare in their White
Paper - something that it is within their power to do right now.
Last week
they finally acknowledged the folly of this approach and came forward with
proposals to start the catch-up with childcare provision in the rest of the
United Kingdom.
In so
doing they made the case for what we have – not for what they want.
The
Nationalists like to assert that they have a vision for an independent Scotland
and that their White Paper is its articulation.
It is not.
This is
not a vision; it is a mirage.
Like all
mirages, the closer you get the less real it becomes.
There is
no coherence whatsoever in this nationalist document – or any other – about the
kind of country Scotland would be if we were to leave the UK family.
This is
not surprising.
The
nationalists have long been skittish and evasive about the model for an
independent Scotland.
They
proffer whatever fits for any given audience at any given time.
Then
switch it for something else when the moment suits.
Back in
2007 we were told that Scotland would be the free market Celtic Lion.
Roaring to
the sound of banking deregulation, and echoing across the arc of prosperity to
Iceland and Ireland.
By 2011
the tune had changed.
Now we
would be a Scandinavian-style social democracy.
With
social services and public spending priorities that looked east, not west.
The White
Paper couldn’t decide which way to jump.
A promise
to cut some taxes, and freeze others, clumsily grafted on to expensive
commitments on nationalisation, public spending and a lower retirement age.
All based
on a single, solitary page of numbers and the wilful omission of data from 2008
– the inconvenient year of the financial crash.
In every
sense, it simply does not add up.
Even in
the best of times, no-one can have a low-tax economy paying for Scandinavian
levels of social provision.
If they
could, Scandinavia – and others – would have done it.
To say
that they will do so with the backdrop of an ageing population and reduced oil
and gas revenues, only adds insult to injury.
There is
no vision, just 670 pages of words.
All things
to all people, big on rhetoric, low on facts, it offers no true picture of what
kind of country Scotland would really become.
What
currency would we use?
What terms
of EU membership could we hope to achieve?
How much
would independence cost and just how would it be paid for?
It is for
the nationalists to present a full, true and costed vision of what independence
would mean.
If they
refuse to do that, what are people being asked to vote for?
Conclusion
In 2014 my
job – and the job of all those who believe in the United Kingdom – is to make
the strong positive case for the UK and to make it loudly and proudly.
We can do
that confidently, because our case is supported by the experts. The
substance of the argument is on our side and it has gone without meaningful
challenge by our opponents.
Now our
job is to make sure that every voter is aware of these facts before they enter
the polling station.
Because
ultimately this isn’t a debate that will rest on the production of papers by
Governments, however learned and substantial they may be.
This is a
debate that must take place in the pub and in the bank – at the school gates
and on the factory floor - our universities and in our supermarkets.
This must
be a debate in which we are all involved.
We cannot
leave this to someone else and hope they get it right for us.
We must
not let anyone tell us what we can and cannot think or say.
In this
debate, everyone’s voice matters.
We all get
one vote.
The future
of our country really is in our hands and we must take it, grasp it and decide
for ourselves.
So my hope
for 2014 is this: in September I hope that all of us who can vote, do
vote.
And I am
confident that people right across Scotland will make the positive choice and
vote no.
The
positive choice to stay part of the United Kingdom family.
The
positive for a bright Scottish future as part of the United Kingdom.
